Sword double throws British 125 Championship open.

Albion KTM UK's Stephen Sword closed the gap to only eight points in the battle for the British 125cc Motocross Championship after taking two straight victories and the overall win at Hawkstone Park, Shropshire last Sunday.

Sword, who set pole position with a fantastic effort two seconds faster than Billy Mackenzie, went onto to dominate the entire field scoring 60 points from his two race wins, beating championship leader Mackenzie in both outings with a big lead - - but lost some ground in the final Maxxis race setting up a thrilling title decider.

The performance was especially impressive given that Sword, like many riders and mechanics had been suffering with food poisoning since returning to England after last weekends final round of the World Championship in Russia.

"I have been struggling with my stomach, I knew that it would be very hard to come here it's always a hard race in the deep sand at Hawkstone," said Sword. "I tried my best to repeat my performance of Culham and try to take over the lead in the championship but Mackenzie still holds on. I have his lead down to only 8 points now so the last round in two weeks will be a test and nerves, speed and stamina."

Team manager Sean Osmond was very impressed by Sword performance: "Stephen rode two strong races and should have really continued that into the (final race) Maxxis Cup. I understand that he was tiring after a stomach upset but he made two simple mistakes that allowed Mackenzie to get by and salvage something from the day.

"The final round will be very interesting, Stephen has done a lot of hard work, the team are 100% behind him and the bike is running perfect but in two weeks time it will be down to him. On past performance in the British rounds Stephen has been that much stronger, hopefully in two weeks time he will be over his illness and back up to full speed and confidence ready to carry off the British Title," added Osmond.